Dr Eggman's Incredible Hyperdimensional Amusement Park
by Koopa Troopinski
Summary: A mysterious amusement park suddenly appears high above Gamindustri...and the CPUs are invited to visit! What kind of shenanigans will Neptune and co. get themselves into this time? Based on the events of Sonic Colors.
1. Time for a Change of Pace

Author's Notes/Disclaimer: This story takes place right after the events of _Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory_'s True Ending and contains some spoilers from _Victory_ throughout the whole story, including this chapter. To avoid future confusion, any character that changed from _mkII_ and _Victory_ will simply have a fusion of traits from both games. Also, all characters and places used in this story belong to their respective owners (i.e. not me).

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><p>Chapter 1: Time for a Change of Pace<p>

Gamindustri, a world whose very existence is connected to the real world's video game industry (hence its name), has seen its share of crises. Years ago, a blue-haired woman spearheaded a massive operation to rid the world of all Console Patron Units, a.k.a. CPUs. CPUs are goddesses tasked to rule over and protect their own nations— which were Planeptune, Lastation, Lowee, and Leanbox—but she felt that the world would do better with a government free from their rule. As the CPUs, who were enemies of each other at first, started to band together, the woman slowly grew more powerful and her goals eventually degraded from revolution to complete, utter destruction. However, with their powers combined, the CPUs defeated the blue menace and saved their world. For a more detailed version of events, please consult your nearest _Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory_ walkthrough. Or just play the game.

Two months have passed since the apocalypse ended, time which was spent on repairing not only roads and nations, but relationships, as well. The CPUs are now practically best friends with one another, though most of them won't admit it in front of the others (especially a certain twin-pigtailed goddess). The members of the Seven Sages, a criminal organization that was also hell-bent on removing goddesses from power and ultimately existence, slowly but surely disbanded and eventually befriended the CPUs during the whole escapade, even to the point of managing the four nations themselves and escorting the citizens to safety while all the goddesses went to fight the big bad final boss. Well, _most_ of the Seven Sages did, but that can be explained later.

Now, although there are still a few buildings and bridges left to repair, Gamindustri has not only returned to its former glory, but has become even better than before. Aside from the Risky and Tough Monsters appearing every once in a while and the occasional eggplant "infestation" (as a certain purple-haired main character would put it), there were virtually no threats to the nations and everything was peaceful. In fact, today in particular was a perfect day to go hang out with friends…

…or at least it _would_ have been had it not been raining hard all day.

In each nation there is a massive, church-like building called a Basilicom. While it's normally used for nation management, political affairs, and overall goddess worship, it also doubles as the goddesses' home in a specially designed section of the facility. Over at Planeptune, a young-looking, purple-eyed girl was sitting inside her room in the Basilicom, staring out the rain-drenched window into the horizon, possibly thinking of ways to get back at whoever programmed the horrendous weather.

"Aw man, this sucks. Like, not even those fancy-schmancy vacuums suck as much as this," the girl said. She had light purple, shoulder-length hair with spiky bangs, which was adorned with two D-pad-shaped hairclips. She was wearing a deep purple dress underneath a white short-jacket with a large "N" button and USB-like straps. While she doesn't look the part, she is still Planeptune's cherished ruler, Neptune.

"Aw, cheer up, Neptune! The weather forecast said that the thunderstorm should end by eight o'clock tonight," said another girl in the room. She looked very similar to Neptune, but she had longer, smoother hair with only one D-pad hairclip on her left side. She was also taller and wore a dress that was a cross between a sailor's uniform and a school uniform. She is Neptune's younger sister, Nepgear, though many would think that she's actually the _older_ sister. She is also a CPU Candidate, a sister of the CPU who has similar abilities as CPUs and essentially functions like the vice president of the nation.

"By eight o'clock tonight? It'll be too late to go out by then! I want it to end now!" Neptune whined, still staring outside the window.

Nepgear seemed confused by what Neptune said. "Um, how is eight o'clock too late? Won't the stores and arcades still be open by then?"

"Oh, Nep Jr., you poor soul. You've forgotten already, didn't you?" Neptune sighed and turned to look at her sister with pity, which only added to Nepgear's confusion.

"Um, f-forgot what? Was something important supposed to happen at eight?" Nepgear started to worry about what was supposed to happen tonight. The last thing she wanted was to screw up later and have Histoire reprimand her later. Her lectures tended to go on for hours.

"Yes, something important is happening at eight! The Wandering Deceased will be on, silly! This season's getting really interesting, and I'm not gonna miss this episode!" Neptune said with a serious and determined look on her face. Well, not really, but it was close enough.

Whatever fears and confusion Nepgear might have had instantly went away. "Neptune, didn't we get a DVR last month? You can just record it while you're outside and watch it when you come back."

"Yeah, but it won't be the same if you watch it _after_ it already happened. You need to watch it _as_ it's happening to get the genuine experience."

"Uh…" Nepgear was going to question Neptune's reasoning but decided against it. She was used to Neptune's skewed thought process.

"Besides, the other CPUs will probably be too busy to watch it right away, so after the show is over, I can go to my Chirper and be all, 'Man, I can't believe that blah blah blah,' and they'll write silly comments about how I'm a jerk for posting spoilers without warning. Noire especially hates when I do that." Neptune said the last sentence with a giant grin.

"Perhaps you should stop antagonizing those who are actually doing their jobs as CPU. (-_-)" a third voice said just outside the doorway. And yes, it did actually speak an emoticon.

"Yeah, but where's the fun in…" Neptune froze once she realized who she responded to.

"…In acting like a proper CPU? Like you're supposed to be doing right now? ⊂(￣^￣ )" the voice spoke again as its owner floated over to the purple-haired sisters. She looked a lot like a fairy, having digitalized "butterfly" wings and being so small that she could use your hand as a chair. She generally rides on an open purple book with glowing pages and a golden design and big green gem on the front. She had blue eyes and blond hair worn as twin, curly pigtails and bangs that reached past her shoulders. She wore a shoulder-less, dark purple dress with gold decorations along the edge, a spiked, white ruffle lining, white cuffs, and a light green tie. She also wore a white hat with purple/gold bows on both sides and teal, headphone-like pieces. She had white knee stockings on and white shoes to match. This miniature marvel is none other than Histoire; she's one of the people entrusted with Planeptune's welfare and often assists Neptune and co. with her immense knowledge and computer-like abilities.

"Well, uh, about that," Neptune cleared her throat, "You see, the weather can have a profound effect on people's temperament, right? Well, this ongoing thunderstorm has had a negative effect on my mental state, and it's difficult to work efficiently while I'm in a depressed state of mind," She figured speaking intelligently would make her seem more credible. Unfortunately, Histoire was not convinced at all.

"Really? The rain is making you lazy? What about yesterday, when it was sunny outside and you were _still_ being lazy? What about the whole week before that? What about most of the last two months? ╰(`^´メ)╯" Histoire countered.

"Uh…"

"And _you_," Histoire snapped towards Nepgear, who jumped a bit in surprise; "While _your_ work ethic has been satisfactory, you have done absolutely nothing to stop Neptune's laziness and have instead pampered her like a spoiled child. (¬_¬)⊃"

"U-Um…to be fair," Nepgear softly argued, already feeling guilty for what she had been doing this whole time, "I just wanted to do something nice after the recent crisis. I mean, we all had a hard time dealing with the Seven Sages, and even after we stopped their organization, there was that berserk ancient goddess that almost destroyed Planeptune and was about to destroy the whole dimension."

"Yeah!" Neptune exclaimed, "Do you know how many game overs we got trying to fight her? We eventually had to sell all those fancy outfits we made to buy some über-expensive CPU Rings, and even then we almost got our butts handed to us! Saving a whole dimension isn't easy, ya know!"

"I fully understand what you two had to go through, but that doesn't excuse you from being absent from your duties for so long," Histoire again countered, "You're doing exactly the same nonsense now as you did after you fought the Deity of Sin two decades ago, and—"

"Wow, it's been that long?" Neptune interrupted, "But, wasn't it only a few years since _Hyperdimension Neptunia mkII_ came out? Man, sequels can really mess with your sense of time."

"Neptune, please…" Nepgear didn't want Histoire getting more upset than she already was, though at this point it seemed inevitable.

"_As I was saying_," Histoire was trying to stay calm but was failing badly, "I'm not about to let you take another seven-year vacation. Now go into your office and get some work done. I'll probably have to help you get up to speed. （￣^￣）"

"Aw…" Neptune complained, "But everything was going just fine with only you in there, Histy, so maybe it's best if we just leave it t—"

"NO! Both of you get over there right now! _Especially you, Neptune!_ (╯`Д´)╯"

"Eeek!" both sisters yelped as they ran toward the door, only to have it slam them into the wall it was attached to.

"(?°д°)"

"Huh? Did I hit something?" a sleepy-sounding girl said after she dashed into the room. She had magenta eyes and long lavender hair; half of it looked like messy, uncombed bangs, the other half was tied into a thick braid with a pink bow at the end. Her outfit was brightly colored with teal, white, gold, and pink fabric but looked odd for someone of her status, or anyone in general. Imagine pajamas worn like a fancy dress with overall straps and a controller-like flap in the center and that's more or less her outfit. On her waist was a button that looked suspiciously like the top of a certain console made by SEGA. She also wore pink stockings with white and gold stripes, pink bear slippers, and held a Neptune plush doll in her hand. Her name is Plutia, one of the CPUs of Gamindustri. Technically, she's also Planeptune's CPU, but the reason why is complicated and involves inter-dimensional travel, so I won't explain it.

"Well, more like some_one_. (^v^;)" Histoire corrected.

"Really?" Plutia turned around but only saw the door and the hallway leading out the room, "…But…I don't see anybody…are you sure I hit someone?"

"Could you, maybe, close the door, pretty please?" a muffled voice called out from behind the door.

"Hey…that sounds like…" Plutia walked to the door and closed it, revealing Neptune stuck to the door face-first, like a fly making snow angels, while Nepgear was embedded into the wall, questioning both why her eyes won't stop spinning and her life choices in general.

"Thanks," Neptune said as she slid down onto the floor.

"Oh! It's Neppy and Neppy Jr.! Did I hurt you two?" Plutia slowly asked.

"Nah, we're fine," Neptune assured as she got up from the floor and fixed her dress, "Besides, we've taken harder hits than that. It'll take more than a door to stop the dynamic Nep duo!" Ignoring the pain throughout her body, she finished with a big smile and made a victory sign with her hand.

"Ohhhh, my ribs…" Nepgear complained, causing Neptune's victory sign to go limp.

"By the way, Plutie," Neptune wondered as she crossed her arms, "How come you went all Juggernaut on the door? It's not like you to do stuff that requires energy."

Plutia tilted her head, "Well…um…it's because…um…uh…"

"Don't tell me you forgo—ow!" Neptune winced as she felt a surge of pain from her face and torso.

"Plutia, what are you holding in your hand? (? °_°)⊃" Histoire pointed out.

"Hm?" Plutia looked at her hand and saw she was holding an unsealed envelope with something poking out from it, "Ohhhhhhh! I remember! I came here to tell you guys about a new amusement park that—"

"OOOOOOOO," Neptune suddenly interrupted and got in Plutia's face with glistening eyes, "Where's the park? Do they have snazzy arcades? Is the park food delicious? Are there awesome rides for short people like m—"

"Neptune, please! Go on, Plutia. ( •v•)" Histoire politely told her.

"Well…a funny-looking fat man with glasses…and a giant moustache…hand-delivered this envelope to me…and told me it had V.I.P. tickets…and an information brochure." Plutia slowly explained. Be grateful that you can't hear how slowly she normally speaks.

"That sounds a bit…suspicious. (;￢_￢)"

"Who cares? There are funny-looking people all over Gamindustri! Gimme the info thingy!" Neptune snatched the envelope from Plutia and took out its contents, which were four tickets with a certain someone's face on it and, more importantly, the info brochure, "I wanna see what kind of ass-kickery this place has in store!" Histoire and Plutia crowded around Neptune as she started to read the brochure.

…

"Hey, can you guys help me out first? I'm kinda stuck…" Nepgear pleaded, still embedded in the wall she was struggling to get out of.

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><p><em>DR. EGGMAN'S INCREDIBLE INTERSTELLAR AMUSEMENT PARK™<em>

_[Insert picture of Dr. Eggman pointing at you here]_

_CONGRATULATIONS! YOU ARE A WINNER!_

_You and one lucky friend have been hand-selected to get a V.I.P. pass to visit the world's first and greatest amusement park in space! Visit five incredible alien worlds, each with their own can't-miss attractions, from the entrancing Starlight Carnival to the adrenaline-pumping Asteroid Coaster! See fantastic creatures from other space, take in the wonderful sights the park has to offer, and so much more!_

_Entrance to the park located in the meadows to the south of Planeptune._

_Open Monday-Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m._

_Eggman Enterprises©_

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><p><em>The next day, at about 11:00 a.m.…<em>

Somewhere south of Planeptune, there were a group of girls walking towards some sort of metallic structure not too far in front of them. It looked a lot like the Space Needle from a strange far-away land called Seattle, only it was more cylindrical, about five times as wide in diameter, and so tall that it impossible to tell where it ended.

As it turned out, every CPU (expect Peashy; she was evidently too young) got two V.I.P. tickets from the same odd-looking fat man. Neptune picked Nepgear to go with her because, well, they're sisters, so why not? Noire, the CPU of Lastation, picked her sister, Uni, for nearly identical reasons; Uni claimed it was actually because Noire didn't have any friends that could go with her…or friends in general. Blanc, the CPU of Lowee, picked Histoire—who was currently riding on Blanc's shoulder—for three reasons: One, because she felt like Histoire, more than anyone else, deserved a trip to the new park since she had worked so hard for so long without a true vacation; Two, the two became good friends recently due to their similar interests in books; Three, her twin sisters, Rom and Ram, were grounded for vandalizing her precious books for the umpteenth time. Vert, the CPU of Leanbox, picked Peashy because Vert recently started treating her like the little sister she had always wanted and thought this would be the perfect time to spend some more quality time with the child, much to Peashy's utter annoyance. IF and Compa, friends of Neptune and co. who aren't CPUs, somehow got a hold of two V.I.P. tickets; IF claims that it's because one of the quests she completed gave her those two tickets as a reward, but Compa believes that IF might have made counterfeit ones. That left Plutia, who couldn't find anyone else to go with her, but brought the extra ticket with her anyway.

So as the group was getting close to the—

"Hey, wait a minute! How come the narrator isn't going to tell the readers what you guys look like? He told them what Nep Jr., Plutie, Histy, and yours truly look like," Neptune wondered aloud with complete disregard for the Fourth Wall.

"Maybe he doesn't want to bore them with the details?" Compa suggested with a raised finger, "I mean…there are a lot of us here, so it'd probably take a while."

"I doubt it," IF doubted, "He's probably inexperienced. Or he's just being lazy. Or both."

"I agree," Blanc flatly added.

"I also agree. （￣^￣）" Histoire chimed in.

"Now, now, ladies," Vert interjected, "It's not nice to make such baseless accusations. I'm sure he has his reasons. Besides, isn't it dangerous to insult someone who can control the sequence of future events?"

As if by sheer coincidence (I swear), a pair of geese flew from out of nowhere and slammed into IF, Blanc and Histoire from behind, knocking Histoire face-first onto the ground and causing the other two to stumble and almost fall.

"See?" Vert giggled while holding a hand to her mouth. Neptune and Peashy were laughing their asses off while pointing at the unfortunate trio, while everyone else was either trying to stifle a laugh or pretend they weren't amused.

IF angrily rubbed the back of her head while trying to convince Compa that she doesn't need morphine, Blanc was busy pounding the two geese with a giant hammer, and Histoire picked herself off of the ground, questioning both why her eyes won't stop spinning and her life choices in general.

"Now that we're done with the fourth-wall antics, can we please get going?" Noire asked in an annoyed tone, although she was secretly amused when Blanc got hit and almost had her hat knocked off. It took the group a while to calm down but eventually they did and resumed to walking to what looked like a massive elevator that seemed to have no end. "Histoire, how did you guys not notice a giant metal column that's practically in your front lawn? Structures this huge don't just appear out of thin air."

"Actually, it did. (;^v^)" Histoire claimed, this time perched on Blanc's other shoulder, "Yesterday, I had several scouts investigate the area south of Planeptune, but they all came back saying that there was nothing there, not even a construction site. I was going to call off the trip, but I sent more scouts early this morning just to double check, and lo and behold, they tell me that there is indeed a giant space elevator with a security checkpoint in front of it and a ticket booth under construction. I do not know how to explain the sudden change. ( •~•)"

"That's strange…though it wouldn't be the first time something strange happened in Gamindustri. Anyway, why did they decide to build an amusement park in space? I can't even see it from here. Why not just build it on the ground like normal people?"

"Maybe they're not normal people." Blanc softly guessed.

"Well, a space park does have a nice ring to it," IF stated, staring at the sky where the elevator led to, "Still…"

"You know, I think I saw something like this in one of the Leanbox games," Neptune pointed out, "It was that shooter game with humans fighting aliens and that big guy in the green power armor. I think he was called 'Mister Chef' or something."

"_Master Chief_," Vert corrected, "and yes, it does bear some resemblance to it. Never thought someone would build an actual space elevator, though…"

"It goes on forever, and ever, and ever, and ever!" Peashy yelled with outstretched arms.

"Goodness! Is this even safe!?" Nepgear was very concerned that something this tall would be very unstable. Even Neptune wouldn't survive a fall from space, despite her free-falling reputation.

"It'll be fine," Uni assured, "They want kids and adults alike to visit their park more than once, right? So, I'm sure they paid a lot of attention to safety…" She started to get as nervous as Nepgear,"…I hope…"

The group was now right by the security gate about to hand in their tickets and go through when they noticed someone staring at the ticket booth. She had dark blue, chest-length hair; the front was worn as curled strands with spiked bangs, while the back was held up with a big blue-and-red, N-shaped hair clip. She wore a black shorts-jumpsuit that's never zipped up, revealing her stomach and a gray, bandage-style top. She loosely wore a big, red scarf and carried what looked like a demon-penguin backpack. She noticed people behind her and turned around, revealing her navy-blue eyes and the big, gold goggles on the top of her head. She saw a few unfamiliar faces, but a large D-shaped smile formed on her face when she saw who the others were, exposing her fang. "Hey! It's you guys!" She waved to them, "How's it going?"

"NISA! What's shakin', gurl? I haven't seen you for a whole game! It's been so long!" Neptune rushed over and tightly hugged Nisa, making the latter struggle for air.

"Urk! If you…don't…let me…breathe…it'll be… the last time…you see…me…"

"Oooooo, that looks fun! I wanna join, too!" Plutia half-ran to those two and joined Neptune in asphyxiating Nisa.

"P-Plutia, please stop!" Nepgear panicked. Blanc was smiling at the impromptu reunion, but seemed concerned herself.

"Um, Nepgear?" Peashy tugged on her skirt to get her attention.

"Huh? W-what is it?"

"Who's the flat lady that Neptuna's hugging?"

Almost immediately, Plutia and Neptune were pushed onto the ground by Nisa, who now had sheer fury written all over her face. "Which one of you guys just called me 'flat'!?" She demanded to know the culprit.

"Um…I did." Peashy said, oblivious to what she just admitted to.

Normally, whoever called Nisa "flat" would get their faces pounded in, but she was also Gamindustri's self-proclaimed Keeper of Justice, and heroes don't go around beating up innocent children. She was forced to regain her composure and put up a fake smile. "W-well, please don't call me that again. It's not nice to make fun of other people's…uh…features."

"Or lack of them!" Neptune stated from the ground.

"Boo, I wasn't making fun of you! I even don't know your name!" Peashy yelled.

"Neptune kinda yelled it out…" Uni pointed out.

"Well, allow me to introduce myself," Nisa began with newfound vigor, "I am the defender of civilians everywhere! When terror strikes the innocent, I will strike back! I am Gameindustri's shining light, the legendary Heroine of Justice, Nisa!" She finished by striking a very Power Rangers-style pose.

"Wow…" Plutia said as she got back up from the grass, "'shining light'? You can glow? That's sooooo cool!"

"Nah, she can't do that kind of stuff," Neptune explained as she also got up and dusted off her dress, "She was using one of those 'metapods' or something."

"I think you mean meta_phors_," Nepgear corrected.

"Hey...um…Nisa, was it?" Plutia called.

"Huh? What's up?" Nisa asked.

"Well…I was wondering…"

"Yeah?"

"You're friends with Neppy and the others…right?"

"Of course! We've been through a lot together! Well, except for the little girl with the bumblebee getup, I've never seen her before."

"Hey! I'm not a bee! I'm P-ko!" Peashy stated.

"Well…" Plutia continued, "how about you go with us? It'll be lots of fun!"

"I'd love to, but something's up with the guy in the ticket booth. I think he broke or something." Nisa pointed behind her with her thumb to the robot behind the Plexiglas panel. It was a short, chubby-looking orange robot with cable-like limbs. It had four-finger hands with large orange-and yellow cuffs, and orange boot-like feet with a yellow stripe at the bottom. It also had a yellow conical nose, big blue LED circles for eyes, and blue LED teeth stuck in a permanent, wide grin. The LEDs in question kept flickering on and off, and the robot itself didn't respond to anything and just stood like a statue.

"Don't worry…I have an extra ticket! I brought it with me…in case I found someone else to go with us!"

"R-really? You'd do that for me? I mean, we've only known each other for about a minute." Nisa was shocked that Plutia would do something so kind to someone who was basically a stranger.

"It's okay! If Neppy's your friend…then I am too!"

Nisa could barely contain her excitement as she started jumping up and down like a giddy schoolgirl with stars in her eyes, "Oh, thank you! Thank you so much!" She locked Plutia in a bear hug and started jumping up and down with her, "You're such a benevolent person! You'd make a great heroine!"

"Hehe…in a way, I already am!"

"Not really," Neptune objected, "I mean, yeah, usually you're all kindness and naps, but…"

Nisa stopped her jumping but didn't let go of Plutia. She was curious about what Neptune was talking about, "Hmm? But what?"

"Oh, nothing. It's better if I don't ruin the surprise."

"Surprise?"

"You don't want to know," Blanc said.

"O-okay then…" Nisa promptly let go of Plutia.

"This is nice and all, but can we _please_ get going?" Noire interrupted, her patience running thin, "At this rate, the park will close by the time we even get to the elevator."

"If you were so concerned about time, you could've left on your own and rendezvous with us at the park later. You're a grown woman." Vert pointed out.

"She secretly didn't want to take the elevator by herself. Maybe she's scared of being alone in space," Blanc teased.

"T-t-that's not true!" Noire defended while working up a blush, "It's not like I wanted to ride the elevator with you guys or anything! It's just that, well, if we came all this way as a group, we may as well just stay as a group, you know?" Everyone but Plutia, Compa, Peashy and Histoire saw through her excuse and stared at her skeptically. "W-what? L-let's just go already! We're wasting time!"

"She is right," Histoire said, "We should all head to the entrance now ( ￣^￣)⊃ "

Before they could finally head into the elevator, they had to hand in their tickets and go through the security gate, which consisted of walk-in scanners and more funny-looking orange robots. Obviously, weapons were not allowed at the park, but CPUs can summon and de-materialize their weapons using their power, so mostly everyone went through without a hitch. IF hated leaving her claws and pistols behind since that would make her defenseless, but was forced to accept it and move on. Plutia's doll and Peashy's oversized cat gloves couldn't be de-materialized, but they also weren't considered weapons, so they were allowed to go through. Compa claimed that she had a legitimate reason to carry a syringe with her since she is a nurse, and it was also allowed through, though the sheer size of it drew suspicion. Histoire almost crashed onto the floor after floating through the scanner, but she assured everyone that she'll be fine, although she immediately went back to sitting on Blanc's shoulder and fought a nasty headache.

When it was all said and done, the gang was finally inside the elevator, which looked a lot like a giant capsule with see-through walls and seats all around the edge. Wait, seats in an elevator?

"_Thank you for choosing to spend your day at Eggman's Incredible Interstellar Amusement Park"_, a certain someone's voice said over the speaker, "_As you may have noticed, there are high-quality, specially cushioned seats stationed all around the edge of the elevator. These are not only for convenience, but also for necessity. Without them, you would more than likely have your skull smashed against the floor, as this elevator will be accelerating from 0 to supersonic speeds within the first minute of the ride."_

"Safety first," IF scoffed. Nepgear looked like she was going to have a panic attack.

"Isn't it really dangerous to go at those speeds?" Uni expressed her concern but almost immediately tried to save face, "N-not like I'm afraid or anything, but…"

"Well, if it didn't go that fast, it'd probably take around eight hours just to get to the park," Blanc figured. "Besides, didn't you say that they must've paid a lot of attention to safety?"

"Y-yeah, but…"

"You kids worry too much! Everything will be all sunshine and ice cream cakes! They're not gonna kill off the main character _that_ easily." Neptune reasoned.

"Hey!" Blanc yelled, "I'm not a k—!"

"Whatever," Noire interrupted. "Let's just take a seat already. We're goddesses, so we should be fine no matter what happens." IF, Compa, and Nisa all raised their hands to point out that they're just humans when Noire stopped them, "Y-you guys will be fine, too! Sheesh." And so, everyone went to a seat and sat next to each other. From left to right, the order was Compa, IF, Nisa, Plutia, Neptune, Nepgear, Uni, Noire, Blanc, Histoire, Vert, and finally Peashy.

"Wow! These seats are super comfy!" Neptune exclaimed, "I bet you could just nap in them all day!"

"I don't think you should be encouraging Plutia to sleep," Noire stated, "She has problems with that already."

"Aww…you look soooo cute, Histy!" Plutia ignored her and couldn't help but stare at the little fairy in a seat designed for someone five times her size.

"(~•ω•~)" Histoire…"responded"…I think.

"You also look cute, Peashy!" Vert complimented Peashy, who was too busy swinging her legs and daydreaming about space to acknowledge her, leaving Vert a bit depressed, "Aww… (;~;)"

"Hey! Do not use emoticons! That is my right only! (≧n≦)"

"_The elevator will begin to lift momentarily"_, the voice spoke again, _"If you are still standing around, then don't blame us for what will happen to your face in the next few seconds. While Eggman Enterprises is responsible for your safety and well-being, we are _not_ responsible for your own ignorance, despite what our lawyers may tell us."_

Nepgear looked to the side and noticed that they were already moving up, and at ludicrous speeds, to boot. "Hey, we're moving already!"

"Wow, I didn't even notice!" Compa said, "These comfy seats really do their job well! Although…uh…"

"I can't move!" Nisa panicked as she struggled to adjust herself on the seat, "Is this some sort of trap?"

"Not at all," Vert assured, "You know how you feel pulled down when the elevator starts to move up? This is like that, only more extreme. It's a temporary inconvenience, anyway."

"It's inertia, basically. Our bodies are constantly resisting the elevator's acceleration," Blanc pointed out, then turned her head toward Vert, who was next to her, "Although, if the force was strong enough to rip off those disgusting sacs on your chest, it'd do the world a favor."

"Don't be so spiteful just because you'll always look like a little boy." Vert slyly countered.

"The hell did you just say to me!? I'll knock that smirk off of your stupid face right now!"

"Go ahead. I'm right here." She dared with a devious smile.

Blanc immediately launched herself out of the seat towards Vert…or tried to. The very inertia she was talking about kept her glued to her seat. She violently struggled to break free from The Force, but ultimately she was stuck. Vert wasn't even phased by the attempt. Blanc muttered something under her breath and turned her head away from Vert, only to be met with the condescending faces of everyone else.

"You know, for someone that's supposedly smart, you sure don't act like it at times," Noire jeered.

"Can it, pigtails! At least I'm not Neptune!" Embarrassed, Blanc angrily puffed out her cheeks and stared at nothing in particular while Neptune blew raspberries at her.

"Whatever! This is so awesome!" Neptune shouted, "This is the beginning to our first ever trip to space! _To infinity, and beyond!_"

…

…

…

"Really?" IF said.

"What? I've always wanted to say that."

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: While making final adjustments, I found out that FanFiction hates less-than and greater-than signs. Go figure.<p> 


	2. Neptunian Space Odyssey

Author's Notes: Wow. I managed to take four months to publish something that should have taken me about two weeks to do. I should get a medal for that.

Or a smack in the face.

Or maybe a smack in the face with the medal…

Still, I'm actually surprised (and glad) I got such a healthy dose of followers/good reviews with just the first chapter. It'd be a shame to just drop this story with all the feedback I got. Hell, I already figured out the major events in each of the areas (Sweet Mountain, Planet Wisp, etc.), so I personally want to see this through.

Also, for those of you who like to listen to background music while you read, you'll see music suggestions in curly braces scattered about the chapter (and maybe even the rest of story). They're purely optional, but give it a try anyway. Or don't. Your choice.

* * *

><p>Chapter 2: Neptunian Space Odyssey<p>

{_BGM: Sonic Colors—Options Screen_ (extended)}

After about a minute of accelerating at a rate of holy crap per second, there was another announcement over the speakers in the elevator:

"_Ladies and gentlemen…"_

"But there are no gentle—"

"Shh!"

"…_at this point in time _Eggman's Ultra-Accelerating Space Elevator _has stopped accelerating and will gradually slow down over the next 10-15 minutes. It is now perfectly safe to _float_ about the elevator."_

"Float? Wait, does that mean tha—huh?" IF stopped herself when she saw Plutia hovering out of her seat and seemingly sitting on nothing…while completely asleep.

"Is she seriously asleep already?" Noire said, appalled that her friend's habit has reared its ugly head yet again, "We've only been here for a few minutes!"

"Maybe the hum of the elevator put her to sleep…" Blanc wondered.

"I blame Neptune…" IF added. "…though Plutia would probably sleep on porcupines if they couldn't skewer her."

"Cool! I wanna fly, too!" Peashy yelled as she launched herself out of her seat and blindly started doing barrel rolls, "Weeeeeeeeee!"

"Wait, Peashy!" Vert called out, "Please be careful! You might—" She couldn't finish her sentence in time as Peashy smacked into Plutia's side, "Oh dear…"

"Ow! My head!" Peashy yelled while holding her head in pain.

"Wha…!?" Plutia was jolted awake and turned to the cause of her shortened nap, "Oh hey, Peashy!" She then noticed that Peashy was floating around aimlessly next to her. "How come you're flying like that?"

"Huh? But aren't you flying, too?" Peashy pointed out. Plutia then looked around and saw that she was farther away her seat than she probably should have been.

"Wow…I _am_ flying! That's sooooo cool!" Plutia exclaimed. She then turned her attention to IF, who was now almost right below her, "Hey, Iffy, come fly with me!"

"I don't know if that's such a good idea. I mean, you two are having trouble moving around as it is." IF looked at Peashy, who was trying to swim around the cabin with little success.

"I know…but this is the first time we've ever been in space…so we should have some fun while we're here…right?"

"Yeah, but as much as I'd like to float around aimlessly like a drunken fish, I'll pass."

"Aww, Iffy…don't be such a party-pooper…"

"Party-pooper!" Neptune yelled from right behind IF while doing a handstand on her seat.

"Gah!" IF yelped and jumped up a bit in surprise. She then angrily turned towards Neptune, "D-don't do that! How did you get behind me so quickly, anyway!?"

"CPU skillz, yo. But if I were you, I'd be less worried about how I got here and more worried about where you're going to go." She told IF with a cunning smile.

"What do you mean—?" IF realized too late that she was dislodged from her seat thanks to Neptune's scare tactics. IF grabbed the armrests and tried to pull herself back onto it when Neptune suddenly started to push her away from it. "Hey! What do you think you're doing!?"

"Come on, Iffy! Why don't you want to fly with us?"

"Because this elevator is too big and I have nothing to propel myself with. I'll just wind up flailing around like an idiot."

"That's what makes it fun!" Neptune retorted, pushing even harder, "Now join us!"

"No!" IF tightened her grip in response.

"Please? What if I gave you some of my precious stash of pudding?"

"I'm pretty sure your 'stash' expired two months ago."

Neptune then remembered something, "Well, I'm your ruling goddess, and as thine goddess that doth rule o'er thou, I commandith thee to bond with us in our activities."

"Nice try, but it's still a no."

"Pretty please with expired pudding on—"

"I said no!"

"Come oooonn!" Neptune now had her feet on the heavy-duty (hopefully) glass wall and was pushing off against it as leverage, "One of us! One of us!" she started to chant.

"Would you knock it off already!?" IF was surprisingly strong, able to resist Neptune's entire body strength with just her arms. That could explain how she was able to hold her own even when dealing with supernatural beings or other CPUs. Or maybe Neptune's constant slacking off has caused her to lower her stats and lose EXP again.

It's most likely the latter.

"I heard that!" Neptune barked at the Fourth Wall. She then noticed that someone to her left was trying to push her away from IF, "Compa?"

"It's not nice to force someone to do something they don't want to do, Nep-Nep." Compa stated. She was kneeling on her chair, leaning over and using both her arms to try and push Neptune away. She isn't all that strong (unless that giant syringe she carries around secretly weighs 500 pounds), but you can't say she's not trying.

With it now a two-against-one, IF was winning the reverse tug-of-war and Neptune knew she needed help fast, so she pulled out her trump card: "Hey, Nep Jr.? Can you come over and help your poor sis out?"

"Umm…o-okay." Nepgear complied. She pulled herself over the tops of the chairs to get to where Neptune and IF were, but when she got to Nisa's seat, she noticed that the seat was empty. "Huh? Where's Nisa? Wasn't she just here a moment ago?" She looked back and saw that Uni was pointing to where Nisa was. Apparently, she took the liberty of practicing her superheroine skills and started "flying" around the cabin like a certain superhero from Krypton. She even got Peashy doing it, too. "Oh, I see."

"By the way, Vert," Blanc called to her, trying to ignore the fiasco on the other side of the room. Vert, using her right arm and hand as a headrest, was too busy ogling Peashy's cute flying technique to pay any attention to Blanc, "Vert?"

"Hmm?" Vert finally responded, looking right at her,"Yes? What is the matter?"

"Remember when I said I'd smack your stupid face and you just mocked me?" Blanc's expression got noticeably darker.

Vert knew that nothing good could come from Blanc mentioning something like that, especially with the face she was making. "Y-yes, but why are you bringing th—KYAH!" Vert ducked at the last possible moment as Blanc suddenly lunged herself at her. "Please calm down! There is no need to act—" Once again her sentence was cut short as she had to jump out of her seat to avoid Blanc's second attack. Vert could have just fought off Blanc, but fighting in the middle of space in an elevator with glass walls that were definitely not goddess-proof was a catastrophe waiting to happen. All she could do is try to avoid getting hit and hope that Blanc doesn't transform at some point.

"Things have really gotten lively, huh, sis?" Uni sweat-dropped and asked her sister.

Noire looked around. The Nep Sisters were trying to push IF away from the seats while frail little Compa tried to stop them. Vert and Blanc looked like they were playing an intense game of tag. Plutia looked like she was half-asleep again (maybe the stars are putting her to sleep?). Nisa and Peashy were bouncing around like kids in a zero-gravity bouncy castle. All Noire could do is just shake her head and sigh at the chaos. "Why is it that every time we do _anything_ together, something ridiculous has to happen? Sometimes I wonder why I still hang out with these people."

"Well, wanna go flying around together?" Uni suggested, "I mean, may as well, right?"

"Why? We fly all the time while we're transformed. What makes this so special?"

"Well…" Plutia started, who had somehow made her way toward the sisters, "In here… we can fly around without the need to transform and burn energy…so we can just relax and have fun! Besides…I don't get to fly as much as the others because none of you let me transform…" Plutia pouted at that last sentence.

"We don't let you transform for a good reason! We all know how you can be when you're like _that_."

"You basically treat friend and foe the same way," Uni added.

"That's not true!" Plutia contested, "I don't hurt you guys…much…umm"

"You whipped me, Ram, and even poor Rom that one time, remember?"

"**What?!**" Blanc immediately snapped her attention towards Plutia instead of straight ahead, her right eye glowing red out of sheer anime-style fury, "**You **_**intentionally **_**hurt my lit**—" she roared as she consequently slammed into IF, dislodging her from her seat. The Neps rejoiced with glee.

"But…!" Plutia again argued, "That was in an alternate ending route…so that doesn't count…right?"

Blanc, surprisingly, calmed down and thought about what Plutia just said, though the throbbing in her head made it a bit hard to do so, "Well…I guess that's true. Alternate routes and endings aren't usually considered canon since they're not part of the main storyline, so you could just say it never _actually_ happened."

"The Good Ending was not that well received, if I remember correctly," a muffled voice said.

"I-I thought we promised to never mention the Good Ending again!" Nepgear complained. Then she realized something, "Wait a minute…was that Histoire just now?"

"I think it was," Noire confirmed. She looked over to Histoire's seat and noticed she wasn't there anymore, "Come to think of it, where did Histoire go? Wasn't she in her seat a while ago?" She started to scan the whole elevator to see where Histoire could have gone to. Maybe Neptune forced her to get up, too?

"Actually, I still am, but…well…" the seat spoke. Wait a minute, seats don't speak. Well, unless they became sentient by some sort of witchcraft, in which case you _kill them immediately_.

Noire took a closer look at Histoire's seat and noticed that there was an indent with a tiny foot and hand wiggling out of it. Putting two and two together, she went over to the seat and reached in to grab whatever was lodged in there. Lo and behold, she wound up pulling Histoire out from her impromptu prison.

*insert jingle of your choice here*

[You found a **Histoire**! Now you can give Neptune longer lectures!]

"Oh, thank you, Noire! I was worried about how long I would be trapped in there! (っ´□`)っ" Histoire told her savior.

"You're welcome," Noire kindly responded with a sympathetic smile. It's not easy being a book-fairy-thing, especially with what Histoire has to put up with on a daily basis. "I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that you sunk into the seat because of the liftoff, right?"

"That is correct…u-unfortunately. It seems as though this lift was not designed with those of my size in mind. (^_^;)"

"Name one that is." IF challenged. Floating around wasn't as bad as she initially thought, but she still didn't like how she was put in this situation. She was currently hovering next to a wall so she can launch off it and get revenge on Neptune when the time is right.

"Touché."

"Okay," Noire resumed, "but why didn't you just call for help? It's not like any of us would have refused."

"Well, at first I tried to escape on my own, but…truth be told, the cushions on this seat are very comfortable…and…well… (;^~^)"

"You didn't want to leave," Noire finished the sentence with a deadpan expression, "That sounds like something Neptune or Plutia would do. I hope they're not rubbing off on you."

"Aww…don't say that…" Plutia said. Apparently she wasn't sleep—oh, never mind.

"Yeah, we're not contagious!" Neptune added, who now joined Peashy in flying all over the place, "Besides, procrastination isn't a virus!"

"Nobody said anything about procrastination, but it's nice to see you admit to your own problems," Noire stated with a very snooty-looking face.

"I know, right? You should try it sometime. It's good for your conscience," Neptune shot back, mimicking Noire's expression.

"I don't need _you_ of all people to tell me how to act!"

"Agreed," Histoire added, "You should work on your own flaws before you try to work on someone else's."

"Yeah, what Histoire sa—" Noire paused and glared at Histoire, "Hey!"

"Don't worry about it, Noire. We still 'heart' you even if you're not perfect," Neptune assured, "and if you're always being a snooty-patooty."

"Okay, I get it," if Noire wasn't already annoyed, she was definitely showing it now, "You didn't have to—"

"…and if you're always such a try-hard…"

"_Okay!_ Enough alrea—"

"…and if you're a tsundere otak—GAH!" Neptune yelped as a red-faced Noire suddenly bolted towards her. She managed to leap away in time, but that also put her on a collision course with Blanc. She leaned backwards and flapped her arms like an eagle in a futile attempt to stop herself, "Hey! Beep beep! Look out!"

Sadly, the warning came too late, for as soon as Blanc turned to see what was happening, her face met Neptune's feet, knocking off her hat. Blanc, of course, was a little displeased about that, "Dammit, Neptune! You piece of shit!"

Just a little bit.

Unfortunately for Neptune, Blanc abandoned her chase with Vert as she became her new target, much to Vert's relief (now she can focus on more important things like giving Peashy her undivided love and attention!). To make matters worse, Noire was still going after her despite her failed attempt, and now even IF was hunting her down. Neptune fled away from them, but she was truly between the proverbial boulder and rigid location. How was she going to get herself out of this one? Maybe she should transform…?

_Yeah_, she thought as she launched off a wall, _when I'm HDD'd up, I'm not only super-fast, but I can fly around freely instead of waiting to hit a wall or something! And even _if_ they got me, they won't do as much damage to me! It's flawless!_

Flawless…except for one thing. If Neptune transformed, Noire and Blanc would probably transform in response, and the last thing anyone wants is an angry White Heart chasing after them. Well, angry Iris Heart would be worse, but at least she doesn't hit like a rocket-powered 18-wheeler on PCP. Maybe.

_Well_, Neptune thought as she kicked off another wall,_ there's always plan N_. "Hey, Nepgear! Could you be a dear and—"

"She's not helping you," Uni spoke for Nepgear, both of whom were "sitting" on the tops of the chairs next to each other, "You brought that on yourself, so get yourself out of it."

"Yeah, like she'll listen to you over her own—"

"S-she does have a point, though," Nepgear pointed out, "Sorry, Neptune," As much as she wanted to help out her older sister, her survival instincts were telling her not to do it. She knows how IF and Blanc can be sometimes.

"What!? Nep Jr., you traitor!" Neptune cried as she barely dodged IF. She couldn't call anyone else because they were either pre-occupied or unable to do much anyway. What could Histoire do, tickle them?

Speaking of Histoire, she was currently floating along the edge of the cabin towards Compa (with ease, thanks to her natural flying ability); partially because she noticed that Compa had her knees on the chair and was staring outside for a while, partially because every other spot was becoming a serious health hazard for her. When she got next to Compa, she politely poked her in the shoulder to break her from whatever trance she was in, "Compa? Hello? ( ? ●_●)σ"

"Huh?" Compa turned toward the source of the poking and gave a heart-warming smile upon seeing who it was, "Oh hi, Histoire! What's up?"

"A lot of things, actually," Histoire said, briefly looking at the chaos behind her, "I've noticed that you have been staring outside for quite some time now. Is something the matter? (´･v･`)"

"Not at all! I was just busy looking at all the stars out there. I've never seen _this_ many when I look up to the sky back home! Aren't they beautiful?"

"Yes, it is quite spectacular. ( ｡^‿^｡)" Spectacular was probably an understatement. There where millions if not billions of stars out in plain view, much more than you could see in an urban, or even rural environment. It was one thing to see pictures of space taken by GASA (short for Gamindustrian Aeronautics and Space Administration, for you uninformed plebeians out there), but the chance to personally see the surrounding galaxy in its full glory was a priceless opportunity that many astronomers can only dream of. Even Nepgear and Uni were staring outside in awe while talking between themselves. Histoire could see that there was a lot to take in, even when she looked straight down below. She could see the radiant totally-not-Earth below them, the massive yet skillfully constructed elevator system, an elevator cabin moving back down to the entrance, something else moving up in-between the elevator tracks, the plethora of stars surrounding the planet…

…

Wait a minute…

What's that thing moving up between the tracks? It wasn't the other elevator, that's for sure. Besides, this object was blue and way too small to be an elevator. She thought that this lift-on-steroids was fast, but whatever—or whoever—this thing was actually outpacing them and was getting closer ever so slightly. As it got closer and closer, Histoire noticed that this creature was definitely one-of-a-kind. First of all, it seemed to be _running_ toward them. What freak of nature could possibly run straight up _anything_? How was it even breathing? It can't be anything human, that's for sure. Actually, upon closer inspection, it looked more anthropomorphic than human. Also, this thing appeared to be a male (he had that "male" vibe about him), and he had big eyes with green irises, red shoes, black nose, white gloves, blue spikes on his back…

Maybe she's being affected by cosmic radiation. After all, that tends to screw with anything involving circuits or flesh or whatever. Yeah, that has to be it. "Compa, could you look downward and tell me if something is coming towards us? (。_。)"

"Sure," Compa looked and saw pretty much the same things Histoire saw, including the strange object that was coming towards them, "Wow, sometimes I wonder how he's able to run up things like that…"

"Perhaps he inhaled heavy water vapors or bathed in electrically-charged chemicals like one of the superheroes Neptune talks about." Yeah, she's definitely affected by cosmic radiation. "Wait, what do you mean by 'sometimes'? Do you happen to know him?"

"Well, not personally, but I know from one of the games Neptune plays that he's—"

"Hold it, Compa." Vert commanded as she suddenly appeared between Histoire and Compa—because she can—causing both to almost jump off their book and seat, respectively.

"Eeep!"

"Heavens! How did you get here so suddenly!? Σ(ﾟДﾟ;)" Histoire asked.

"I have my methods," Vert stated with a cunning smile, though she quickly became serious, "In any event, you should not reveal the character's identity so quickly." She grabbed Compa and helped her get back down.

Nepgear also noticed the blue streak speeding by (well, _about_ to) and overheard Vert's statement, "Um, to be fair, his identity is pretty obvious considering…you know…his features and the setting of this story."

"Maybe, but it is proper storytelling technique to show, not tell," Vert smiled again, put her left hand on her hip, and pointed her right index finger up as if she was a teacher going through a lesson, "It is better to have the narrator gradually reveal someone's identity or have new characters reveal themselves, usually indirectly, than to simply have someone blatantly yell out everything about—"

"HEEEEEEY, IT'S SONIC! SONIC THE HEDGEHOG! HE'S FROM THOSE SONIC GAMES I LOVE SO MUCH! IT'S ACTUALLY HIM!" Neptune yelled out as she zoomed towards the giant window to get a better view. Vert remained smiling, though her eyebrow and mouth were now noticeably twitching. After a short while, though, she just shook her head and sighed to herself. Neptune will be Neptune, after all.

"Figures…" IF murmured to herself. She gave up the chase and went to see what Neptune was shouting about. She wasn't as enraged as the other two.

"Hey, get back here!" Noire called out, "We're not done with you yet!"

"Aww…leave her—*yawn*—alone, you guys…" Plutia groggily pleaded. Neptune's yelling probably woke her up.

"But she—!"

"You guys shouldn't be fighting so early in our trip…it ruins the mood," Plutia scolded.

"Well, I guess it does a _little_ bit, but…"

"Besi—*yawn*—besides…we're gonna be at the park for the whole day, right? They'll be plenty of opportunities to punish Neppy later!"

"Fair enough, I guess," Blanc relented. Egging the conflict on would just make Plutia upset, and that's not a smart thing to do.

"Huh? Did you guys say something?" Neptune looked back.

"Nothing~" Plutia said with a false smile (or is it?).

"Oh. Okay, then," Neptune went back to admiring the speedy mammal that, at this point, everyone seemed to be looking at, "Hey Iffy, your phone has a camera feature, right? Take some awesome pics of the blue dude with attitude for me."

"Doesn't your phone have a camera feature, too? Just use yours." IF suggested.

"I can't! There's not enough memory left on my phone to keep HD photos, and this shot _needs_ to be in HD!"

"Then delete the old games that you don't play anymore."

"I would never delete a game, no matter how old it is! That's, like, dissing the developers or something!"

"Ugh, fine, whatever, I'll take the picture," With uncanny speed, IF whipped out one of her cellphones, punched in the password, and got into camera mode. She aimed at Sonic's head and waited for the camera to get into fo—

"WAIT! I want him to give a thumbs-up and smile right at us! It'll look way cooler!"

"Okay, but how are you gonna—"

"HEY! SONIC! HEY! LOOK THIS WAY! HEY!" Neptune yelled with her face practically against the glass. Unsurprisingly, Sonic didn't even do a glance-over.

"Oh, geez…" Noire sighed as she shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose, "That's not gonna work, you know. There's no air in space, so sound can't travel anywhere."

"Stop trying to ruin things with your logic!" Neptune shouted at Noire before turning back to Sonic, "HEY! OVER HERE!" Nope, still not looking.

"As much as I don't like agreeing with her, Noire is right," Blanc stated, "How about you save us all a headache and…oh great, she's not listening."

"HEY! HEY! LISTEN!" Did it work? Take a wild guess.

"Did you seriously just make that reference?"

"SOOOONIIIIIIC!" she whined. Neptune was now knocking on the glass and seemed close to her breaking point.

Meanwhile, a certain goddess of Lowee was dangerously close to their own breaking point, "If you don't shut the hell up—"

"HEEEEEEEEEEMMRRFF—" Neptune yelled from her mouth before Blanc's hand forced it shut. Said hand also pulled on Neptune's mouth to face Blanc, whose piercing eyes were now almost an inch from her own.

"**Stop. Now**," Blanc commanded with as much cold fury as you could possibly squeeze into two words. She then let go of Neptune's mouth, but kept it close in case Neptune continued.

"R-roger that, Com-m-mander Blanc. Proceeding to s-stop now," If there was a Ten Commandments for Gamindustri, "Thou shall not anger White Heart" would be somewhere on there, right above "Thou shall not steal pudding from Purple Heart" and "Thou shall not delete Green Heart's save data". Neptune forced a smile on her sweat-drenched face, desperately trying to get back to her good side.

"H-hey!" Nepgear angrily shouted, "You can't treat my sister like that!"

"Whatever," Blanc said as she dropped her hand and started to move away from Neptune, "She stopped her screeching, so—"

"Got it!" IF suddenly yelled as a shutter-like sound played from her phone. Apparently, as luck would have it, Sonic had got curious as to what was near him and looked right the passengers while Blanc was dealing with Neptune. Some of them (obviously not Neptune and Blanc) waved at him, causing Sonic to smile and strike a pose mid-run. IF didn't miss a beat and got the shot Neptune wanted.

"Huh? Got what?" Neptune asked as she saw IF doing something on her phone.

"You wanted a shot of Sonic's face, so here you go," IF showed her the pic of Sonic posing for the camera.

Neptune stared right at Noire, "Ha! And you said it wouldn't work!" She crossed her arms with a triumphant look on her face.

"I-it was just a coincidence! It had nothing to do with your hollering! Most likely…" Noire defended, "Why is he even running up the stupid thing, anyway?"

"Because he's Sonic, that's why."

"That's a terrible explanation!"

"Well, why don't just ask _him_ why he's running up the thing?" Neptune suggested while pointing towards Sonic with her thumb, "I'm sure he'll…" Neptune turned back to the outside and saw that Sonic was now almost out of sight above them. Neptune, who apparently learned nothing from what just happened two minutes ago, went right up against the wall with her hands cupped around her mouth and yelled, "HE—"

"**Neptune…**" Blanc growled.

"Oh, whoops! I almost forgot," She sheepishly said (with fear) as she backed away from said wall. She then realized something, "Wait a minute! Since he's going to the same place we're going, we'll run into each other again, right?"

"That would be nice," Nisa said, "He must be a very interesting guy to be around if he can just run up walls like that. I wonder if he's a fellow hero like me…"

"Of course he is! He's been fighting for peace and saving the environment before the hippies made it cool! He's been doing hero stuff before you were even born! I think…"

"Really?!" Nisa beamed up at the prospect of meeting up with a veteran hero, "Well then, we should definitely meet up with him the first chance we get!"

"You go do that," Blanc said with closed eyes.

"_Ladies and gentlemen_," the same voice form before suddenly said over the speakers, "_we know that we said that the elevator will be _gradually_ slowing down, but it appears that we will be arriving ahead of schedule. Therefore, we ask that you please return to your seats, as it will now be necessary to use heavier braking systems."_

"'Ahead of schedule', hmm? Seems like those V.I.P tickets came with their own beneficial perks," Vert remarked.

"I would hope so! Otherwise, I'd storm into their little headquarters or whatever and demand a refund!" Neptune exclaimed.

"We didn't buy anything…" IF pointed out.

"Shh! They don't know that!" She whispered.

"Uh…"

"In any case, we should return to our seats before the elevator starts to brake ( ￣^￣ )っ" Histoire told everyone. And so, everyone…_flew_…back to their original seats.

"_Are you all back in your original seats?"_ the voice asked.

"Yep!" Neptune happily answered.

"They can't hear—"

"_Good_," it responded, "_the elevator will begin to brake in 10 seconds…"_

"Um, there appears to be a slight problem," Vert warned.

"Huh? What's up, Vert?" Neptune asked.

…_9…_

"These seats do not have seatbelts." As soon as she said that, Blanc quietly pushed herself off towards the ceiling, then half-back-flipped so that her feet were on the ceiling. She then turned around so that she wasn't facing outside.

"So? Safety is for wimps. Besides, we didn't need them before." Neptune said as Blanc "sat down" and then turned away from Vert to signal the others to follow her lead. Histoire didn't have to do much since she could just cheat with her magical flying book-carpet.

…_7…_

"Yes, but that was because we were accelerating upwards. Did you learn nothing from the physics classes Histoire made you take?" Vert accused Neptune as more and more people repositioned themselves to match Blanc.

"Well, honestly, it was all too complicated and had way too much math involved, so I slept through most of it..."

…_4…3…_

"Indeed, which is why you will go right back and make up those classes once this trip is over 눈_눈," Histoire reminded her from above.

"Aww, do I have…wait, why are you all…hunkered-down, upside-down, all-around like that?"

…_1…_

Suddenly, the elevator made a loud screeching sound as both Neptune and Vert were launched towards the ceiling. Vert reacted quickly and flipped backwards, landing hard on her feet, but with all the grace of a certain Montague fighter from another game. Neptune attempted to out-do Vert with a double-back-flip, but she undershot the second flip and landed face-first onto the metal roof.

"Mrf...Mmrfrrmfmrfrmrf…" Neptune whimpered, sprawled out on the ceiling and unable to move no thanks to inertia. Peashy tried to help her out by pointing at her and laughing. Soon, most of the others started to laugh with her.

"Goodness, Neptune! Are you okay?!" Nepgear cried out. Out of instinct, she tried to lean over to offer _actual _help to her sister. Physics were having none that, and Nepgear had to go back to sitting upright and using her arms as supports to keep herself from smacking into cold steel (or whatever space elevators are made of).

"No worries, Nep Jr., I'm alright!" Neptune turned her head and assured with a smile. The incessant noise from the brakes made it somewhat difficult to have a normal conversation…not that anything normal was happening lately, "I kinda blew my moment of awesomeness, though…"

"That's okay, Neppy! I thought that flip you did was really cool!" Plutia said with a warm smile, "You're still pretty cool in my eyes…even if you did make yourself look stupid!"

"Aww, thanks, Plutie…wait, what was that last part?"

"She _always_ makes herself look stupid," IF pointed out.

"Oh, really? You've _always_ made yourself look stupid?" Plutia innocently asked Neptune, "I didn't know that..."

"Yeah!" Peashy spoke for her, "She's a real dummy!"

"No!" Neptune pouted, "I mean, yeah, I act silly and stuff, but I'm not just some dumb blonde! The main character has to be likable and respectable, ya know!"

"About as respectable as a door mat," Blanc muttered to herself.

Thankfully, the brakes were starting to ease up, so not only was the screeching noise going away, but it was actually possible to stand up and move around, though they still couldn't leave the ceiling. Everyone could feel this and decided to stand back up, since they knew at some point the elevator would stop and drop them back down.

"_We would like to take this moment to point out that the wonderfully engineered seatbelts currently restraining you all have been donated to us by the magnificent Hirokazu Yasuhara and—" _the announcer stopped as a faint voice in the background seemed to be talking to him_, "What do you mean 'they don't have seatbelts'?!"_ Now he was arguing with whoever was in the background. "_They were supposed to be installed onto the seats already! I gave them to you two to do just that!"_ A second voice spoke up._ "NO, they weren't for you to wear! Why do you think they're called __**seat**__belts, you imbecile?! Grr, I _knew_ I should have had some of my Egg Pawns handle it instead of you two dipsh—huh? My what is still on?"_

…

…

…

"_Oh…"_

The announcer cleared his throat after the very awkward pause. "_If any of you would like to donate some high-quality seatbelts for our beautiful elevators, please report—"_

The speakers made nothing but sparks and static noises as Blanc's sandals were now embedded into both of them.

"What kind of stupid-ass crap is that!?" Blanc roared, speaking for everyone and, apparently, doing all the raging for them, "How do you forget to put something that'll stop people from getting a friggin' concussion!? We wouldn't even have to do all this bullshit if they had just done their job!"

"Yeah, you tell 'em, girlfriend!" Neptune cheered.

"SHUT UP!"

"…sorry…"

"Um…" Vert cautiously spoke up, "As much as I agree with you, Blanc, I am pretty sure what you just did will get as all arrested."

"What!?" Neptune piped up again, "But, don't we have, like, diplomatic immunity or something? You know, like that dude with the metal face that can shoot lasers from his fingers?"

"No, we are not like that comic book character ( ; -_-)," Histoire shot down, "Even if we _did_ have diplomatic immunity, committing vandalism will do nothing but cause people to question our integrity, and that would surely hurt our shares."

"Well, there doesn't seem to be any cameras in here, so it'd take a while for a staff member to take notice. It'll also be impossible for any scandalous videos to leak into the Internep. If anybody _does_ ask what happened, we'll just say it was all Blanc's fault. _I_ sure as hell won't go down for what she did." Noire declared.

"I...don't know if they would just let the rest of us off the hook that easily…(´・△・` ; )"

Blanc mumbled something under her breath as she walked over to one of the speakers and started to pry out her left sandal, "I don't understand how they made an elevator durable enough to make round trips to space, yet made the speakers weaker than papier-mâché." When she (eventually) pulled out the sandal, she inspected it for damage and, satisfied that there wasn't even a scratch, put it back on. Her footwear must be made out of pure Nintendite or something.

"Well, to be fair, it just _seems_ like that because of your strength. I mean, you are pretty strong, especially when you're angry," Uni pointed out.

"Damn right, I am." Blanc said with pride as she went for her other sandal. Before she could reach down to get it, however, the elevator finally reached its destination and was slowly coming to a stop. As it was doing so, the passengers felt lighter and lighter until eventually they started to fall back down (gently, this time). Blanc tried to rescue her sandal quickly, but her own strength came back to bite her as this one was deeply lodged and refused to go anywhere. While everyone landed back down safely (with Neptune impressing Peashy and Compa by doing acrobatics and striking a pose on the way down), Blanc was stuck dangling several feet high, whose infamous temper was starting to act up again, "Come _on_, you stupid…!" As the elevator finally came to a stop, the speakers made more static noises in a futile attempt to tell them something unimportant.

{_BGM_: Whatever hotel lobby music you want lol}

"Oh look, we've arrived!" Nepgear announced as the elevator doors open, leading into a station that seemed to be huge for the sake of being huge. The best way to describe the entire room would be a long, metallic hexagonal prism with blue and red circuit-like lights all over. The top half was completely see-through, allowing for a partial view of not-Earth. While the front and back walls were nothing special, the sides looked like they were taken straight from a Las Vegas hotel, with their bright, warm colors and rows of flowers and palm trees. There were more of those funny-looking orange robots from before scattered about; some of them were watering the plants (wearing straw hats for whatever reason), others gave friendly waves to the newly arrived guests, who politely waved back. The left side also had two massive golden doors that were partially opened by some tuxedo-wearing robots, leading into a plaza of sorts.

"FREEEEEEDOOOOOM!" Neptune didn't even wait for the doors to completely open as she bolted out and started running around, mostly because she got bored of being in an elevator and wanted fresh air, but also because of how much room there was to begin with. Peashy quickly followed suit, chasing Neptune around the whole place for a spontaneous game of tag, almost knocking into some robots.

"Um, is Blanc going to be okay? Should we help her?" Compa wondered.

Noire looked up at the struggling Blanc before looking at Compa, "Don't worry about her, it's not like she'll hurt herself…maybe. Let's go."

Most of the others, unlike Neptune and Peashy, walked out like normal people and headed for the giant doors, with Noire and Histoire telling Neptune to knock it off and stop acting so immature.

"I suggest you hurry up if you do not want to be left behind~" Vert teased before joining the others. Blanc gave her the universal "piss-off" sign as she resumed her struggle. Only Nepgear, Uni, and…well…Blanc actually stayed behind. Blanc could have sworn that the sandal was getting looser, but nothing she did actually got it out. She let out a long sigh as she seemed to be unable to reunite with her footwear anytime soon. Using her hammer on the thing would just make it worse, anyway. She didn't want to bust a hole into something that's supposed to bring them back home.

"Um…do you want some help?" Nepgear offered.

"No…I can…get…" Blanc grunted as she squirmed around for leverage, but to no avail. She paused for a bit, "…this sucks…"

"We could jump up and pull down on her. That might help," Uni suggested to Nepgear. Nepgear agreed, and both of them positioned themselves underneath Blanc on either side.

"If you're going to jump up here, try not to—" Blanc turned her head to see what was going on, only to get face-to-face with a jumping Nepgear. Both Uni and Nepgear were able to leap several feet straight up thanks to their powers of a CPU (Candidate). They latched onto Blanc's body, and with their combined weight (and Blanc's own strength) they were able to remove the sandal…and part of the speaker with it. All three of them landed hard on their backs, but Blanc's fall was cushioned by the other two, which was all that mattered.

"Owwie…maybe that wasn't such a good idea…" Nepgear whimpered has she tended to her sore back. It didn't help that Blanc landed on top of her. At least she kept some of her stats from her last adventure, so she didn't take too much damage.

"Well, it worked regardless. Now I won't have to walk around half-barefoot like a hobo," Blanc said, back to her quiet self again, as she got up and put on her right sandal, tapping the tip of her foot to make sure it was secure.

"I guess so," Uni grunted as she stood up. She then realized something that would have been very helpful moments ago, "Hey…why didn't we just transform? Wouldn't that have made things a lot easier?"

There was an awkward silence as the three looked at each other. Why _didn't_ they transform? Blanc shrugged as she tried to come up with an explanation, "Didn't need it. We shouldn't activate HDD and waste energy for trivial stuff, anyway."

"Yeah, Histoire mentioned that to me and Neptune a while back, after sis used HDD so that she'd be tall enough to get onto a rollercoaster ride," Nepgear recalled, remembering how angry Histoire looked when she found out about it, "It was a long and…well…unpleasant lecture."

"It figures she would try and do something like that. Gotta give her points for creativity," Blanc said as she walked out into the station, followed by Nepgear and then Uni. _If only I could get bigger when I transform_, she thought to herself, subconsciously looking at her own chest before snapping out of it. Nepgear noticed this but didn't say anything, which was probably for the best. They walked casually towards the now-closed golden doors so they didn't attract unwanted attention. "Oh, by the way," Blanc added as she turned her head back to look at the other two, "Thanks for your help. I know I kinda…had a…tantrum…back there," She started to blush and faced back forward to try and hide her embarrassment.

"It's okay," Nepgear assured her, "We know why you did what you did. We all got a bit upset at their gross negligence. It's a good thing nobody…" She paused as she remembered her sister's "spectacular" landing, "…uh…_most of us_ didn't get hurt."

"Next time, though, try not to act like an old lady and attack things with your shoes," Uni jokingly suggested.

"The only old lady around here is Vert," Blanc equally joked, causing the three to giggle together. A loud sneeze by a certain Leanbox goddess could be heard in the distance. Their laughter ended when they saw two orange robots, which were holding overfilled toolboxes and wearing hardhats, run past them towards the elevator.

"T-t-they already know…" Nepgear quietly said. They all started to break into a cold sweat and worried about what might happen next.

"Just keep walking and don't do anything suspicious," Blanc advised, smiling and waving at the tuxedo-wearing pair of robots who were welcoming them. Nepgear and Uni followed suit (hah, puns), though they couldn't completely hide the nervousness from their face. The robots gladly opened the doors for the trio, and when they stepped through into the circular plaza, they found themselves looking right an upset Noire. She apparently was forced to wait for the trio and didn't like it at all, as she had her arms crossed under her chest, was deliberately tapping her foot, and had a look on her face that screamed, "I'm waaaaaaaitiiiiiiiiiing." In fact, she seemed to be mimicking a certain blue hedgehog right now. She glared at Blanc, then at her feet, then back to Blanc.

"I see you're not barefoot anymore," Noire finally spoke, still showing her impatience.

"I know, right? My sandals didn't even get a scratch on them! Wanna get a better look at them?" Blanc beamed with false happiness. She donned a fake smile as she lifted her foot up so the bottom was level with Noire's face. She was ready to show her just how unharmed her sandals were. Violently.

"I'll pass," Noire dismissively walked away, arms still crossed. She looked back with a venomous grin on her face, "They're probably smelly and outdated. Like your game consoles." She teased.

Blanc couldn't hide her anger as Noire resumed walking forward, "And so it begins…_again_," she grumbled, cracking her knuckles.

"Hang in there, Blanc…" Nepgear offered her encouragement as she patted her on the shoulder with an uneasy smile.

"I'll see if I can keep my big sister in check," Uni said as she went to catch up to Noire.

As angry as she was right now, Blanc couldn't help but smile at the two Candidates. It's funny how they can be so similar, yet so different from their older sisters. It kind of reminds her about Rom and Ram. "…Thanks, guys. I appreciate it."

{_BGM: Sonic Colors—World Map_}

Now that everybody was back together again, they set off to explore the first park of the interplanetary complex, which, according to the giant lettering on the floor and the obnoxious welcome signs plastered about, was none other than Tropical Resort…

…

…

…

{_BGM off_}

…well, they _were_, until Neptune called out to her friends from a cotton candy stand on the opposite side of the entrance.

"Hey guys? Why won't this guy shut up and take my money? He just keeps pointing to a sign with a shiny ring on it."

* * *

><p><em>Minutes before…<em>

_In some undisclosed location…_

{_BGM: Sonic Unleashed—Cutscene - Eggman's Idea_}

There was large, ovular white room that, aside from the massive screen in the front showing a sea of different camera angles of Tropical Resort, was plain and almost bare of anything. The only things in the room were some sort of command console with a keyboard, a small, geometric robot, and an oddly-dressed fat man sitting on a sleek, white hover-chair. He looked like Theodore Roosevelt's evil twin, wearing a red coat-vest with a white zipper down the middle, a white stripe down the sleeves, yellow cuffs, a white button on each flap, and two pairs of white stripes and yellow square buttons across his chest. He also wore what looked like a black jumpsuit underneath (it could just be pants hiked up to his stomach, but nobody _really_ wants to know what he's wearing underneath his suit), with matching shoes that have a white stripe down the foot, gray heels, and "bolts" on his ankles. Wearing white gloves, he used one hand to groom his ridiculously long brown mustache and the other to adjust the blue glasses permanently attached to his face. He also had goggles on top of his head, but they're about as unused as Nisa's.

Oh, and his body is egg-shaped. Very important fact.

Mustachio over here was busy pressing different buttons on the console and being angry about a warning message that recently popped on screen. "Blasted kids! Where are their parents?!" The man yelled as one of the camera views expanded to full-screen, showing a shot of Blanc, Nepgear, and Uni just as they were walking away from the elevator, "Did you see what that one brat did?!" He pointed right at Blanc, "He destroyed my beautifully crafted and highly expensive speakers! What nerve!"

"Um, boss?" The robot interjected as it hopped onto the console. It basically looked like two halves of a red and black sphere connected by some ball joints and thin metal bars, which also made up his arms. His red hands bore a striking resemblance to his master's own. He also slightly hovered wherever he went, since he had no feet. "I believe that person is a girl, not a boy," it pointed out.

"What are you talking about? Of course he's a boy! You saw how he acted! And look at his slim physique!"

"Well then, why is she wearing a dress?" the robot asked, still unconvinced.

"Maybe he was feeling adventurous today…"

"Boss, I'm certain that there are many other girls who look much like her. Don't you think that you're being a little too insensitive?"

"'Insensitive'? Ha! I am the outstanding and legendary Dr. Eggman, soon to be this world's sole ruler! I don't have time to be a motivational speaker! It's not _my_ fault if they can't handle a little criticism."

"But aren't _you_ the one who can't take a little crit—" the robot again countered before being pressed into a ball by Eggman's angry palm.

"I don't remember programming a 'talk back to your master' function into you, Orbot," Eggman scolded his servant, "I'd start apologizing if I were you." Eggman lifted his palm back up so that Orbot could extend back into his original form.

"Yes, boss. My conduct was unacceptable. I should not display such mannerisms to someone as brilliant and exceptional as you. Your intelligence, ingenuity, and ignorance are truly unparalleled." Orbot apologized with a bow, trying to get back to Eggman's good graces.

"Why, thank you, Orbot!" Eggman beamed with pride, "Wait…what was that last part?"

"Nothing, sir."

"Well, in any case, I'll just send two Egg Pawns to go and do some repairs. It shouldn't take too long to do." Eggman typed something on the keyboard and then pressed a white button labeled "DO IT" in red lettering. After several seconds passed, two Egg Pawns carrying equipment showed up on screen and ran past the girls, who quickly became worried. "I'll worry about suing them later. Right now there are more pressing matters to attend to…like WHERE IS MY LUNCH?!" He suddenly slammed his fists onto the console, somehow making the hovering Orbot stumble and fall to the ground, "Cubot should've been back 30 minutes ago! What the heck is he doing?" Immediately after he said that, the room's sole door slid opened up, and Eggman rotated his chair to see who it was. Standing by the doorway was another small, geometric robot. He looked very similar to his red counterpart, only he was yellow/black rather than red/black, and instead of a sphere motif, he had a cube one.

"Ah, Cubot! We were just talking about you," Orbot told him, "They say that if you talk about someone right before they show up, it's a sign that they'll live a long life."

"Hmph! He won't live at all if he doesn't give me a good reason as to why he's so late," Eggman remarked.

{_BGM: Sonic Lost World—Tropical Coast Zone 1_}

"Calm yaself, boss man," Cubot advised, who was acting like he was Jamaican for whatever reason, "I got ya your foot-long sandwich, fulla turkey an' erryting, but when me eyes saw dis deliciousness, I tought ta git meself someting, as well."

"What?!" was all Eggman could say. He was baffled at how a robot could get hungry in the first place…and the fact that Cubot was **acting like he was freaking Jamaican.**

"It's true. I tried ta git some cotton candy for meself, but I couldn't eat it no matta how hard I shoved it in me face."

"Of course you couldn't! I didn't give you functioning jaws! Or a stomach! Or a brain, apparently!"

"Wateva," Cubot dismissed with a wave of his free hand, "Ya wanted a sandwich, so here ya go." Cubot tossed the sub to Eggman, who caught it with both hands.

"Couldn't you have just _handed_ me the thing? You know, so stuff wouldn't spill on my expensively-tailored suit?" Eggman growled. A tomato slice and some mustard were now splattered onto his expensively-tailored suit.

"But ya didn't say ta—"

"**Get out and make yourself less worthless! You too, Orbot!**" Eggman exploded as both his lackeys rushed for the exit, "And get me more of those aliens! I need them for my master plan to work!"

"Ya got it, boss—"

"Don't speak!" He commanded as the door closed behind them.

{_BGM fade out_}

A plate and handkerchief ejected themselves from the console onto Eggman's lap. He then put the sandwich onto the plate and cleaned up his suit with the handkerchief. "Why does he even sound like that?" Eggman thought aloud, "Wasn't he yapping like a cowboy an hour ago?"

{_BGM: Sonic Unleashed—Cutscene - Eggman's Idea_}

He pressed a button on the console and a different camera view went full-screen, this time showing the whole crew hanging around the plaza, though Nisa was curiously absent. Observing the screen, he set aside his meal for now, crossed his legs, and leaned back, elbows on the armrests and fingertips touching each other.

"I was originally going to conquer that meddlesome hedgehog's world, but it seems that this one has its own interesting perks," Eggman mentioned as he went into his obligatory monologue, all the while stroking the right side of his awesome mustache, "If my research over the past two months has been correct, most of these girls are actually goddesses tasked with guarding and caring for their people with their ethereal powers and resource management. My scanners show that they harbor unique energies, the likes of which I have never seen before. All I have to do is figure out how _exactly_ their powers work so that I can use it for my own benefit…" He turned his chair 180 degrees towards someone in a poorly lit part of the room, "…and _you_ are going to tell me everything I need to know…won't you, darling?" He politely yet so menacingly asked. The woman he was talking to was currently trapped inside a red capsule with blue translucent energy for walls. She briefly looked at Eggman before her gaze sunk back to the floor, depression written all over her face and posture.

"…y-yeah…"

{_BGM fade out_}

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: Welp, that's another chapter in the bag. I didn't expect to write as much as I did for this chapter…or to take as long as I did to publish it. I guess that's what happens when you allow college and procrastination to mix.<p>

On the bright side, now that the spring semester is over, I'm (temporarily) free to work on my personal projects, like this one. Hell, the other day I was able to crank out over 2,000 words in several hours. During college, after hours of non-stop typing/programming, the last thing I wanted to do was type some more, so I could only manage to write a hundred or so words per day, if at all.

Also, if you haven't noticed, there are (and will continue to be) some discrepancies between the _Sonic Colors_ storyline and my own. This is intentional, as I didn't want this to be a simple "Hurr, let's copy/paste _Sonic Colors _but with pretty anime girls instead of fur people" kind of story. I know that this sounds obvious, like "Yeah, of course it's going to be different", but I've seen many a copypasta in my life to know otherwise.

Then again, the _Sonic Colors_ storyline was bare bones to begin with, so it's kinda hard to just copy/paste it without it feeling empty (_Zing!_).

So, for those who were waiting for the next chapter to show up, I apologize for making you wait so long. I promise that the next chapter won't take another four months to get released.

Honestly.

Probably…

AND NOW FOR SOME FUN FACTS:

Microsoft Word's spellchecker is stupid and incredibly aggravating, especially if you're trying to write anything that isn't an essay about a president or something. It can't even recognize interjections and one-word questions.

Speaking of spellcheckers, Microsoft Word and Google Chrome can't seem to agree on what isn't spelled right and what is. Good. Exactly what I need.

The "Thou shall not delete Green Heart's save data" bit was partially inspired by a real-life incident where my father deleted all of the data on my PS2 memory card _for no goddamn reason_. Seriously, I asked why he did that and he couldn't come up with a good reason. Jerk.

I'm pretty sure I'm the first person to write ~15 pages describing an elevator ride. Maybe.

REFERENCES. REFERENCES EVERYWHERE.


	3. Ring Fever

**Hey, remember when I said that I wouldn't take 4 months to release the next chapter? Well 6 1/2 is not 4, so I kept my promise. Yeah, it's technicality BS, but it's not like lawyers don't do the same thing.**

**In all honesty, though, a lot of things has happened (some of which may or may not have involved video games and YouTube) over the past several months that hampered my ability to work on my story. I'd explain more about it, but this isn't Twitter, so I'll just sum it up as life getting in the way of...well...my life. At least things are calming down a bit for me, so I can get back to more video g—_storywriting_.**

**Oh, and many thanks for all the feedback I've gotten during my absence. I've even inspired others to write stories, as well. That's the kind of thing that makes this all worthwhile.**

* * *

><p>Chapter 3: Ring Fever<p>

"What do you mean he won't take your money?" Noire questioned as she and Uni went to see what the problem was, "You _do_ have enough money to buy cotton candy, right?" The rest of the crew also walked up to Neptune—sans Vert and Peashy, in which the latter was bugging the former to buy her a plushie from the souvenir shop.

{_BGM: Sonic Colors—Tropical Resort Map_}

"I don't know. He just keeps pointing at signs. See?" Neptune pointed to the Egg Pawn standing behind the cotton candy stand, holding up a "not allowed" sign in its right hand and pointing to another sign with its left. The sign being pointed at had a picture of a golden ring on it with a "40" going through it. "Oh, I know! Maybe he just doesn't take cash!" She turned to face IF, "Hey, Iffy? You have a credit card or something I can use?"

"No," IF shot down, "Even if I _did_ have one, I'd make sure to keep it as far away from you as possible."

"Aww, don't be like that! You know what they say: 'til debt do us part!"

Histoire figured that she had yet another subject to "teach" Neptune about later.

IF sighed and took another look at the sign with the golden ring on it, "_Anyway_, I think the real problem here is that we need some sort of foreign currency we don't have."

"Aww, that's too bad," Compa said, both saddened and annoyed about this since she also wanted to buy some cotton candy.

"How could we _now_ have the wrong currency?" Noire threw one of her hands out in anger and confusion, "Didn't the ticket booths back at the entrance take credits?"

"Well, there wasn't really a price list on the booth, and the guy running it was broken, so we didn't know," Uni pointed out, "The V.I.P. tickets let us get in for free, remember, sis?"

Getting even more irritated, Noire took a quick look at the large space plaza around her, which seemed a bit larger than it needed to be. More palm trees, street lamps, and foliage made a makeshift border around the circular plaza, followed by tropical-themed concrete buildings behind them that didn't seem to serve an actual purpose other than to look cool. When she observed the various stores and stands there and saw what they were selling (and what items were on sale, just in case), her eyes widened when she saw the unfortunate truth, "Wait a minute…_none_ of the stores here take credits! Why!?" The others also looked around the plaza to see if what she said was true. The souvenir shop (with a sad Peashy and Vert leaving the store), the concession stands, the flying shuttle buses…everything was priced in rings, not the credits they currently had so much of.

"So…we basically just waltzed into the middle of space virtually broke," Blanc flatly remarked.

"It would appear so… (≖_≖ ; )" Histoire reluctantly confirmed, now sitting on Blanc's right shoulder again. Even while they're on vacation, more problems just pop up like weeds. There's just no rest for the weary, or basically anyone not named Neptune or Plutia.

Blanc sighed and shook her head as she crossed her arms, "Why does something always have to go wrong while we try to enjoy ourselves? It's like we're cursed or something."

"I feel your pain, Blanc. o(´д`o) …"

"What are we going to do?" Nepgear worried, "Shopping is part of the experience in an amusement park!"

"Perhaps there is some kind of currency exchange booth nearby?" Vert wondered, walking around and looking for one, "Peashy wanted a plushie, and I do not intend on letting her down." Her scavenging skills and attention to detail were second to none…at least when it came to video games. Then again, the whole place looked like it came straight from a video game. Weird.

"That's not really something you'd find in an amusement park," IF told Vert, scanning the surroundings, "Not like we'd know how to even _get_ to one in the first place. There's no directory or signs here to show you where everything is. This might be a problem…"

"It's a conspiracy, I tell you!" Neptune boldly declared, "They knew we were filthy rich, so they purposely made it so that we would have to use some new currency and start from square one!"

"Don't be stupid, Neptune!" Noire interjected, "What kind of amusement park _doesn't_ want your money?"

"_This_ one, duh! They must've known we only use credits in Gamindustri, yet they still went, 'Hey, you know what? Credits are stupid. Let's charge _rings_ for everything instead!' I bet the mastermind behind all this is laughing at us right now..." she pouted.

"Or they could just be a bunch of foreigners in a rush to get this park ready for opening day. They made some rookie mistakes and ignored the price discrepancies. I doubt they did this on purpose."

"'Rookie mistakes,'" Blanc scoffed, "I didn't realize you were experienced at making space parks."

"Sh-Shut up! I'm just saying—!"

"Noire!" Vert suddenly called out as she was walking down a long, flat bridge of sorts, the sole exit out of the plaza. The bridge itself had a blue, glass center with an inner white stripe and an outer yellow stripe zig-zagging by the edge. There were also more greenery and street lamps lined right in front of the guard rail, with giant tiki torches placed behind it. Vert stood on her tiptoes, squinting to try and see something, "I think I see some rings over in the distance! Some of them even have the number 10 on them!"

"Huh? Where? Are they on the ground, are they stuck in some trees, or what?"

"Um…they are just floating around and spinning in place, scattered high and low above the roads and some rails…and some fans…and…spikes? Why are there…?"

Noire comically made a "(¬_¬)" face as she put her hands by her hips, "They _did_ do this crap on purpose, didn't they?"

"Oooooooh, this is going to be one of _those_ adventures," Neptune said with glee, having stars in her eyes and a huge smile growing on her face, "I've always wanted to be in a platformer!"

"Platforming? Aww, I don't wanna jump around…" Plutia whined, "It sounds like a _lot_ of work…"

"But it's so much fun!" Neptune insisted, "You get to run around, do lots of cool things, see lots of cool places, meet lots of cool people, jump onto lots of cool people…"

"Well, that's the thing…I don't wanna run around, either. Jumping onto people sounds like lots of fun though…"

"Well, it's loads better than being confined to a stupid grid, standing around and waiting to get smacked by something."

"Did you just diss the very kind of game you came from? The game _we all_ came from?" Noire questioned Neptune, crossing her arms, shocked that she would just blatantly bad-mouth her own game like that.

"N-No, not at all, silly Noirey!" Neptune nervously defended with waving hands and a forced smile, "I-I-It's just that a change of pace is nice every once in a while…y-you know?" She let out equally forced chuckles, which died out as quickly as they started. _Please don't smite me, almighty Mr. Izawa_, she quickly prayed.

"A goddess answering to another god," Noire thought aloud, "I think I read about something like this in a book about Greek mythology."

"What's myth…mmm…mitochondria…uh…_mi-__thol__-__uh__-jee_?" Compa honestly asked with her head tilted to the side and a finger to her cheek, "Is that some sort of personality disorder?"

"Wha…?" Noire was thrown off by that question (and confused by Compa's selective pronunciation skills), "N-No, it's not. You don't know what mythology is?"

"T-They don't teach mi-thol-uh-jee in medical school…" Her face went to a mix of sadness and embarrassment. Being a specialist has its downsides.

"Hey, Compa?" Plutia interrupted, trying to go back to the original conversation, "Can you carry me over there…please? I'm tired and I don't wanna run…"

"Um…well, if I give you a piggyback ride, we would both get slowed down," Compa pointed out, "And…to be honest… I won't be able to jump that much with you on my back. I don't think you're as light as Peashy…n-no offense."

"That's okay…I just wanna nap for a while. When we get to the jumpy stuff…I'll be so full of energy that I'll just hop off and do them myself!"

"Really? Well then…" Compa glanced at IF for a second opinion, except IF didn't know what to say and just shrugged. Compa then looked back at Plutia with a warm smile, "Sure, I'll carry you!"

"Yay!" Plutia cheered as she latched onto Compa's back, "Thank you _soooooooooo..._zzzzzzzz."

"You're welc—oh. She's already asleep."

"Ooo! Ooo! Can you carry me, too, Compa?" Neptune asked with a gentle smile and puppy eyes.

"I-I can't carry you _both_, now!" She quickly formed an "X" with her arms.

"You need the exercise, anyway," Blanc remarked, earning a glare from Neptune.

"Well, we should head over to the rides for the time being," Blanc's shoulder companion suggested, "We can always buy something later,"

"May as well," Noire agreed, "We don't have that many options right now. Let's just walk around and find something fun to do. We'll collect whatever rings we can find along the way."

"Hey! Hey! Nowar?" Peashy ran up to her and tugged on her left sleeve, excitedly hopping up and down like the little kid she was.

"Hmm? What is it, Peashy?"

"Can we go on that big thing over there? Can we, can we? It looks like fun!" Peashy pointed to a humongous Ferris wheel in the distance that seemed to tower over most of Tropical Resort. The Ferris wheel, like the unhealthy amount of "Welcome!" signs strewn about, was saturated with changing, colorful lights. There were, for whatever reason, many similar Ferris wheels scattered about (all of them bearing a flower and Eggman's face with the words "Enjoy!" in the center), but the one Peashy was referring to seemed to be both the largest one and the one highest up.

"The Ferris wheel, huh? I guess we can go there first," Noire turned towards the others, "Are you guys okay with that?"

"Of course they are!" Neptune answered for them, "Now let's go do some arbitrary platforming for the sake of progression!" She grabbed Noire's right arm and starting sprinting across the bridge, forcing Vert to jump back as she sped past.

"H-Hey! Let go of me, you idiot!" Noire commanded to deaf ears as she was dragged across the floor, "I know how to walk! You're gonna ruin my dress!" At least the floor she was on was smooth and clean.

"Wait! Neptuna! Don't be mean to Nowar like that! Let her go!" Peashy called out as she ran up to Noire and grabbed Noire's left arm, "I'll save you, Nowar!" She started pulling away from Neptune, using her feet like emergency brakes, to little success. She also was completely oblivious to her own strength—and so was Neptune, apparently.

"Ow! OW! You two are gonna rip my arm—OOWW! STOP IIIIIiiii…! Noire's cries faded out as Neptune continued down the long bridge and the trio disappeared behind a downward slope and more palm trees, knocking over a few Egg Pawns along the way.

"HEY! Don't treat my sister like that!" Uni shouted as she ran to rescue her big sister. She could've just stopped Neptune with a "harmless" paralyzing shot, but using a gun inside the park would _definitely_ cause some problems. The incident with Blanc was already pushing it.

Vert just stared at the four as they darted off into parts unknown, shaking her head and giggling with one arm supporting the other in a sort of "L" shape underneath her chest, "Neptune's childish ways never seem to go away, no matter what we do or how much time has passed."

"Miss being in your youth, huh?" Blanc teased as she and the others met up with her on the bridge.

"Hmm? Did you say something?" Vert's head snapped towards Blanc with a threatening smile.

"Nothing," Blanc dismissed, unintimidated by Vert's face, "Let's just go. Standing around sightseeing is nice, but I'd rather be doing something productive right now."

"Shouldn't we chase after Nep-Nep? What if she gets hurt or lost?" Compa worried as they walked across the bridge.

"That's her problem. She shouldn't be running like a lunatic."

"Besides, knowing Nep and her 'main character powers'," IF added, "she'll wind up taking the long way around without realizing it."

Compa was still trying to see where Neptune might have gone to, but the only things she could make out of the sea of trees, buildings, and lights were more stores and some carnival games that only took more of that foreign currency they needed to find. She went towards the right edge of the bridge and leaned over to get a better view, but immediately regretted doing so as she saw that she was right next to an enormous lack of floor that lead to, aside from a few blue tunnels and several flying hovercraft, nothing but the vast void of space.

"WAAAH!" Compa screamed as she made a mad dash back towards the center with her heart now working double-time, "T-T-There's nothing but s-space down there!"

"Well, we _are_ in space…" Captain Nepgear of the _S.S. No Shit_ proclaimed.

"True, but shouldn't they have put more than just a basic guard rail to protect people from falling to their deaths?" Vert questioned.

"They did a piss-poor job with public safety so far. I don't see how that'll change anytime soon," Blanc commented.

Out of pure coincidence, the PA system decided to come to life, "_Ladies and gentlemen_,_ this is a friendly reminder that while the guard rails are sturdy and designed to keep you away from the vast nothingness of space, they are not fool-proof. As such, please do not lean on, sit on, grind on, jump over, or throw other people over the guard rails. Thank you_."

"I hope Nep heard that," IF muttered as the remaining crew continued their trek towards the giant, metal circle in the distance. After a minute or so, they made it to the end of the bridge and began walking down a boardwalk of sorts when Nepgear realized something…

"Um…everyone?" Nepgear said, causing the group to stop and look at her, "Where's Nisa? Wasn't she with us a while ago?" The others noticed the absence of the self-proclaimed heroine and looked around in different directions.

"She _did_ say that she wanted to meet up with Sonic as soon as possible," Vert pondered, "I guess she got tired of waiting."

"Was she at least with us when we decided to go to the Ferris wheel first?"

"Doesn't matter," Blanc stated, "Neptune and Noire's yelling will act like a beacon for her. It'll be easy for her to reunite with us."

And so, the crew resumed walking down the road like the normal people they certainly weren't.

{_BGM fade out_}

* * *

><p>{<em>BGM: Sonic Colors—Tropical Resort Act 1<em>}

Elsewhere in the park, the self-proclaimed heroine of justice ran up to some sort of fountain shaped like a chalice in the middle of a walkway of sorts. Underneath the fountain was a circular, elaborate floral pattern that contained more colorful circles. There were more like it nearby, but it's not like it mattered; you'd only see them for maybe a second apiece in the game, anyway. She slowed herself to a stop and surveyed her surroundings, trying to see where her new idol could've gone to.

"I could've sworn I saw him over there, but…" Nisa muttered to herself as she stared at a plaza way off in the distance. The overabundance of foliage and bright neon signs, coupled with Sonic's natural speed, was making it extremely difficult for her to keep track of the blue blur. "Maybe I should look for a better vantage point," she decided. Running around blindly was getting her nowhere, so her best bet was to just continue along the path she was already on and try to get to higher ground.

She resumed running down the walkway while still looking off to her side, unaware that her right foot had just stepped onto what seemed like a runaway treadmill on the ground. In a fraction of a second, she found herself much farther ahead than she should have been. As good as Nisa's reaction times were, they weren't enough to save her from the almighty laws of physics. She stumbled for a second and struggled to stabilize herself before her footing gave way completely, causing her to fall face-first into the ground and skid several feet forwards until she stopped short of a small hill. After a few more seconds, Nisa turned her head to the side and stared blankly ahead, unable to register what just happened, until she finally opened her mouth to speak:

"Wha…?"

She stood up and inspected herself. Surprisingly, her outfit was in the same condition as before, albeit dirtier. There weren't even any scratches on her body, though this is probably due to some unwritten law about cute anime characters. After dusting herself off, she went back to the mysterious treadmill, curious as to why such a thing was there in the first place. "What in the world is this for?" Nisa wondered out loud, "Is this like one of those floor conveyor belts they have at airports so that people can get to places faster?" She squatted down to get a better look, "Why is it so small and fast then? Is it even safe—"

She looked back at the hill over yonder. Her tumble earlier pretty much answered that last question.

Standing back up, she folded her arms across her chest, "This is definitely some sort of health hazard. I can't believe someone actually decided to place turbo-charged panels everywhere. I mean, did they really think…that it would be…okay for people…to…to…"

Out of the blue, Nisa envisioned herself stepping onto the panel (properly, this time) and speeding off into the distance, running along the ground and even the buildings like a true super-heroine. She was even doing many heroic deeds all the while, like returning an old lady's purse that was stolen by a thief, saving a helpless cat from a burning tree, and taking Noire to a cosplay convention. A huge smile was subconsciously forming on her face, but she quickly shook her head and tried to regain her composure.

The whole idea of using the panel, however, didn't leave her mind. Sure, something like that could easily wind up putting the average person in the hospital, but Nisa was far from average. Her entire career consisted of fighting monsters that could crush/eviscerate/slice/disintegrate/eat/slime/mildly annoy her to death if she didn't bring her A-game. A chance of getting road rash seems preferable over a chance of having half your internal organs outside your body.

Ultimately deciding that she had nothing to worry about, Nisa took several steps back directly behind the panel and got into a runner's stance. After about a second or two, she broke out into a full sprint right onto the high-speed panel. Her already fast speed was suddenly doubled as she raced across the pathway and over the small hill from before. Part of her wanted to cheer like she was on a rollercoaster ride (which, in a way, she already was), but she also knew better than to lose focus. Humans weren't meant to move fast like sports cars…_yet_…so Nisa had to be careful not to trip on anything or crash into a wall or fly off into deep space or…

Actually, there was a lot that could go wrong at those speeds, but the Heroine of Justice was too busy enjoying herself to care.

_Woah_, Nisa thought, _this is amazing! I think I understand why Sonic didn't just take the elev—uh-oh!_

Her train of thought was cut short as she realized too late that the path she was on curved straight down, and momentum forced her to keep on going. To her relief, the road didn't dip into an endless abyss and instead curved back to level ground. Unfortunately, she found that a section of the road ahead was now, for whatever reason, about three stories lower down with a stone barrier protruding from near the middle—which Nisa was about two seconds from crashing into. Reacting quickly, she made a huge leap of faith off the edge and barely landed on top of the wall. She then hopped off it and landed onto the part of the road that wasn't deep down below, though it was oddly curved up like a half-pipe. After going from one end of the "half-pipe" to the other, she found herself back onto level ground.

She slowed herself down to a halt and looked back at the miniature obstacle course she just went through. It's not like parkouring was anything new to Nisa, but the fact that she even had to do it just to get to point B _in an amusement park_ made her suspicious.

_You know_, she thought,_ if they just wanted people to go sightseeing and go on fun rides, why is the layout so weird? I could've sworn I saw some giant, red bumpers and a floating, rainbow-colored hoop back there, too. Do they really expect the average person to just waltz through all that?_

Her suspicions only grew when she looked back forward and saw that there was a set of gray spikes in the way with some out-of-reach platforms above it. A row of what looked like five golden rings was also hovering in an arc over the spikes. Curious, Nisa went to the first ring and tried to grab it, but it disappeared into sparkles the moment her hand touched it—and with a small chime playing for some reason. The second ring did the exact same thing when she reached up to grab it. Seeing where this was going, she jumped over the spikes with ease, touching the remaining rings along the way and making them disappear.

Where did those rings disappear off to, anyway? Nisa figured that it's a mystery that will have to wait until she found Sonic.

Going back into a run, she went up to a bridge consisting of large square tiles and, of course, no barriers whatsoever. Thankfully, the bridge itself was plenty wide for Nisa to safely cross, but as soon as she stepped onto the first square, she felt it start to shake.

"Huh? What the heck is going onaaAAHHHHHHHH!" Nisa screamed as the tile she was on suddenly broke off the bridge and started to fall. She couldn't see what exactly she was falling towards, but she figured that the end result would be pain or death (she wasn't immune to fall damage like Neptune, after all). She leaped straight up and barely grabbed onto a remaining tile as the one she left fell to parts unknown, but now she felt _this_ tile start to shake. She quickly pulled herself up and sprinted for her life as the bridge fell apart behind her. The blue-haired heroine safely made it to the other side and escaped certain doom, though she stopped for a while to try and calm her heart down. As dangerous as her situation was, she was just glad that it was only her that had to go through that and not some innocent civilian.

Where _was_ everybody, anyway? Aside from the group she was (initially) with, she hasn't seen anybody else here besides orange robots, not even an NPC silhouette.

After traveling for a while longer, the Heroine of Justice found herself entering some sort of massive hallway. The area had a blue floor with a white, segmented stripe down the middle, yellow walls with a red band and a white floral design going across it (and the occasional yellow support pillar jutting out), and a ceiling which was half-beige and half-grandma's rug. Thankfully, a row of boost panels was there to help her zoom past the tacky roof as quickly as possible.

Once out of the hallway, which took a while to get out of, another gap in the road up ahead forced Nisa to slow down. She decelerated to a walk as she inspected the section up ahead. There were a few platforms that were floating level to where she was, but underneath those platforms was a _bed of spikes _that looked much like the ones she saw earlier.

_What's wrong with these park designers?_ _Why would they make something like this? Someone could get killed over here!_

That someone wasn't going to be her. Although the platforms were spaced out a good distance away from each other, they weren't jumps a heroine couldn't handle. She even did a few somersaults as she went from platform to platform. When she got to the last platform, she found herself going from a river of spikes to a river of fans with a massively high cliff at the end. The fans themselves had a pretty strong gust to them, and Nisa made full use of that by "leaning" into the wind to glide all the way up to the ledge. For whatever reason, not only were there golden rings floating above the fans, but there was also a larger red ring with a red star inside it. It made a different sound and had different sparkle effects than the normal rings, but it disappeared all the same when Nisa touched it.

To Nisa's surprise, when she got to the top of the cliff, she found that the path was…well…completely normal. It was a long straightaway and mostly went at a downward slope, but other than that, there were no dash panels or spikes or fans or bumpers in the way…or anything else that shouldn't even be at an amusement park in the first place. _Why wasn't the route like this the whole time_, she thought as she ran down the road. The increasing number of view-blocking buildings was making it impossible to scan for the blue hedgehog, so all Nisa could do was keep moving forward and hope for the best. If only she could fly like the CPUs…

{_BGM: Sonic Colors—Results Screen_}

The road up ahead seemed to curve back to level and end at a circular plaza with some sort of red device in it's center and an odd-looking "temple" behind it. However, right before that was a horde of Egg Pawns scattered around a huge area. Some of them were holding "Welcome!" signs, some of them didn't, but all of them were jumping around and cheering Nisa on as she ran past. Nisa slowed down to a jog, looking very confused as she hesitantly waved back to the cheer squad around her.

_Why are they cheering for me?_ _Are they cheering because I survived? But then, why make the route so dangerous in the first place? Oh! I know! Maybe I _wasn't_ supposed to go this way, but I did it anyway. I mean, I _did_ take a lot of shortcuts before all that by jumping across buildings and whatnot. They probably put those gimmicks and obstacles in the way to test people's bravery and athleticism, both of which are marks of a true heroine!_

It wasn't the best conclusion she could come up with, but given how wacky things have been so far, she didn't know what to believe. Nisa continued on, now giving brighter smiles and happier waves to the robots, until she reached the plaza, which, unfortunately, seemed like a dead end. Nisa's smile quickly dropped, but not just because of that.

{_BGM fade out_}

Upon closer inspection, the strange red device she saw earlier had two long capsules sticking out of it. Inside of those tubes was a swarm of…well, she wasn't sure _what_ they were. She thought they were squids at first, but they were bluish-white, had one frontal eye with pink irises, three tentacles, two alien-like antennae, and spherical heads—not exactly the kind of squids you'd want to eat. Most of them were "swimming" around and a lot of them seemed very worried about being in there. When Nisa got even closer to get a better look, all of them suddenly turned their attention to her, causing her to jump a bit. They started to speak to her…or at least, that's what Nisa _thought_ they were doing—it honestly just sounded like random babbling. She had no clue what they were saying, but their body language told them everything she needed to know.

They're scared. They're trapped. They're in danger. They want out.

Something's _definitely_ wrong with this place.

* * *

><p><strong>I'll be honest, writing Nisa's part was tougher than I thought. I've never played a game where Nisa was a playable character, so I pretty much have to rely on whatever the wiki(s) says that she acts like. Hopefully, I didn't screw up her character.<strong>

**But hey! At least we're getting through Tropical Resort's acts (or stages or levels or whatever you want to call them)! Platforming! Huzzah! I'll even give you a cookie if you can guess which act Nisa just went through. I'll give you a hint: there's six to choose from.**

**Also, for the record, I'm not going to recreate all six acts for any of the zones (areas, hubs, whatever). That's just crazy.**


End file.
